Friday, August 23, 2013

Free Fiction to Help Us Forget That Ben Affleck Is Now Batman.

More great free fiction, including a pair of stories from Kristine Kathryn Rusch, an SF story by Nancy Kress, a Ken Liu story in both audio and text format, the latest episode of the Antipodean podcast, audio by Eleanor Arnason at Clarkesworld, and a ton of e-books after the fold (including David Drake and John Ringo). I'd say to check out Regan Wolfrom's SF Signal post for more free fiction e-book links, but since many of you have come here from there, I won't. [Art from Ken Liu's story at Drabblecast]

• "Migration" by Nancy Kress. Science Fiction
"Welcome to Freedom, a Libertarian society, the only planet in the
Coalition where genetic engineering is not only allowed but common. But
that hasn’t changed things for the pupcats, with their drive to migrate
yearly back to the ice from which they came. Shipped off planet,
captured, sold, many suffer and die each year from being kept away, so
Lukas has come to put a stop to it."

• "The Hanging Judge" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction
"No matter how remote, colonies need law and order like anywhere else.
Someone has to hold people accountable and keep the criminals at bay,
right? You’d think a judge who travels with an execution chamber and a
prison ship would be feared throughout the Colonies, but Judge Morell
quickly discovers that’s not true of everyone in this interesting tale"

• "Flipping the Switch" by Jamie Todd Rubin. Science Fiction.
"No journey to the stars could begin without a starship, and so we
continue our journey with a tale about one of those without whom
colonization of the stars will never happen: a colonial ship pilot,
called upon to take an adventure and sacrifice life at home, until he
begins realizing the cost. Did he make the right decision? Would you
choose the same?"

• "The Bricks of Eta Cassiopeiae" by Brad R. Torgersen. Science Fiction
"Someone has to go and prepare planets for colonist’s arrival. In some
cases, this will consist of advance teams of volunteers or government
officials, in others, perhaps laborers will be recruited. In the case of
our next story, those laborers are prisoners working off their hard
time. The service in the brick fields is far better than other options,
however. Unless, of course, one of your fellow inmates wants even more ."

• "The Far Side of the Wilderness" by Alex Shvartsman . Science Fiction
"Sometimes human colonists themselves can be away so long, they begin
seeing the Earth as a romantic, hopeful place different from what their
ancestors who founded the colony might remember. In a reverse of our
other stories, a bit of a Moses-esque promised land mythology arises
amongst a religious sect of isolated colonists in regards to the Earthly
home they left behind, driving some of them to live for one goal: to
return home. But what if home is not the place their legends recall?"

• "Legio Patria Nostra (The Legion is Our Country)" by William C. Dietz. Science Fiction
"If the moon had a name, it was a Hudathan name, since the satellite was
orbiting a world that the Hudathans laid claim to. But, like everything
else in the sector of space sandwiched between the Hudathan Empire and
the Confederacy of Sentient Beings, the moon was open to attack."

• At Drabblecast: "The Call of the Pancake Factory" by Ken Liu. Comedy. Horror,
"The bar is plenty kitschy: goofy statues made from coconuts everywhere and strings of shell beads hanging from the ceiling. I smile when I see a coconut sporting a pair of mouse ears made from scallop shells." Also flash audio "Lovecraft" by Chris Munroe.

• At WMG Publishing: "Advisors at Naptime" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction. Humor.
"She’s
important because the grown-ups believe she’s an average five-year-old.
Average five-year-olds have uses for bad guys who want to conquer the
world. Only no one realizes that Carol isn’t average. Carol’s smart. And
tired. And will do anything to get her nap"

• At Clarkesworld: "The Lovers" by Eleanor Arnason.
"There was a woman of the Ahara. She came of a good line within the lineage1 and grew up to be tall and broad with thick, glossy fur. Her eyes were pale gray, an unusual color in that part of the world. From childhood on, her nickname was Eyes-of-crystal. If she had a fault, it lay in her personality. She was a bit too fierce and solitary"

• At Drabblecast: "The Call of the Pancake Factory" by Ken Liu. Comedy. Horror,
"The
bar is plenty kitschy: goofy statues made from coconuts everywhere and
strings of shell beads hanging from the ceiling. I smile when I see a
coconut sporting a pair of mouse ears made from scallop shells." Also flash audio "Lovecraft" by Chris Munroe.

• At Internet Archive [LibriVox]: John Silence by Algernon Blackwood. Horror. Dark Fantasy.
"There are, it would appear, certain wholly unremarkable persons, with
none of the characteristics that invite adventure, who yet once or twice
in the course of their smooth lives undergo an experience so strange
that the world catches its breath—and looks the other way! And it was
cases of this kind, perhaps, more than any other, that fell into the
wide-spread net of John Silence, the psychic doctor, and, appealing to
his deep humanity, to his patience, and to his great qualities of
spiritual sympathy, led often to the revelation of problems of the
strangest complexity, and of the profoundest possible human interest." Text here and here.

• At Tales to Terrify: "The Red Empress" part one of The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen. Dark Fantasy.
"She settled in her chair on the stage, balanced the soundbox of her harp between her knees, braced its neck against her shoulder and caressed the strings. All twenty-two were in tune, and their song brought a sliver of comfort, for as long as she was allowed to play, she would live another day."